SMU_AMI_November_Spread

Vol.2 / Asian Management Insights
of livelihood. It was at that time that
Unilever, one of the world’s leading fastmoving
consumer goods companies,
came up with an innovative idea to
restore, modernise and re-brand such a
convenience store.
It started with the idea to help just
one mom-and-pop store that had been
severely impacted by the floods. The shop
owner had opened the store just over
two years ago with money borrowed
from relatives. Heavy rains had caused
water to seep into the shop late one
night, destroying all his goods. The floods
had left the shop owner penniless and
in heavy debt.
Despite its destruction, this momand-pop
shop had an excellent location—
it was at the corner of a busy street in a
residential area with high customer
foot traffic. Unilever’s head of business
development for general trade, Ratchtar
Karasuddhi (‘Jack’), saw this as an
opportunity—he believed that with a bit
of remodelling and better visibility,
the shop could not only be revived, but
become a serious alternative to the
modern trade convenience stores down
the road.
When Jack approached the shop
owner with the idea to renovate his shop,
he was initially hesitant to accept the
offer. After the flooding, the distraught
shop owner had made up his mind to
sell the store to pay off his debts. He was
also not convinced that the renovation
would actually help revive his business,
as the 7-Eleven and CP Minimart located
just a few blocks down the road posed a
continued threat. But Jack persevered
and explained that customers preferred
the softer conveniences of the familiar
surroundings, personal service and
informal ambience of a mom-and-pop
shop to that of the more ‘clinical’
conveniences offered by modern trade
convenience stores.
Finally, the shop owner agreed, and
the Unilever team got to work. The
company bore all the costs of the
renovation and remodelling, and also
decided to create a branding for the
shop. Jack’s team came up with
the name ‘Ran-Ti-Dow’, which
in Thai meant ‘Star Store’. 5 The
team worked on some designs that
could help improve the visibility
of the local store. The colours of
the star logo were in line with its
original blue and yellow banner
(colours that had been tested to
catch the eye). The shop was re-painted
with new signage, and some additional
lighting was installed to attract attention.
The fresh branding
was an immediate
success–within the first
six months, sales grew
by 400 percent.
In March 2012, the first Star Store
opened its doors to customers. The fresh
branding was an immediate success–
within the first six months, sales grew
by 400 percent. 6 The good news caught
on, and within four months, another
four shops in the same neighbourhood
were converted into Platinum Stores, as
the Star Stores came to be known within
the company.
The Platinum Store
concept takes roots
Jack sought the support of Unilever
Thailand’s leadership to expand the
scope of the programme, and it was fully
supported. Under the USLP, the seeds of
developing sustainable business practices
took root in Thailand. Key elements of
the Platinum Store concept were:
BRANDING FOR THE COMMUNITY
The Platinum Store was a community
enhancement project, not a new retail
concept for Unilever. As such, all
branding, promotions and advertising
was done under the Platinum Store
name and logo, and Unilever was
not mentioned unless it was related
specifically to a promotion of its products.
Unilever’s name did not appear on the